BAI Jian, LI Ye

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E-commerce Marketing Models of Fisher Scientific Company in Canada: Analysis and Its Enlightenment

BAI Jian, LI Ye

Objective To study the characteristics of Fisher Scientific Company’s e-commerce marketing models in Canada.Methods Fisher Scientific Company’s successful experience of e-commerce marketing models was explored from four aspects, including individualized sales service, highly integrated e-commerce platform, the e-commerce logistics system and the security of payment, meanwhile weaknesses of the related industries in China were also analyzed. Results and Conclusion Successful marketing experience from Fisher Scientific Company can be learned to promote the development of e-commerce in biological reagents marketing in China.

e-commerce; marketing model; biological reagent; commerce logistics

The term of electronic commerce (e-commerce) originated from IBM Corporation in 1996, and it refers to consumers online shopping or online transactions among enterprises through the browser/server applications in the open network environment. Sales enterprises can sell products, exchange products and integrate process of information through website[1]. E-commerce also can be seen as the electronic trading, which includes the transaction of products, services, online information[2]. Compared with traditional sales way, sales based on e-commerce are convenient, safe and speedy. In this paper, by analyzing the characteristics of Fisher Scientific Company’s e-commerce and the shortcomings of China’s e-commerce sales in the biological reagents sales field, we provide references for related industries in China.

1 The characteristics of the fisher scientific company’s e-commerce marketing model

Biological reagents are special products, and users of biological reagents in Canada work mostly in universities, research institutions, hospitals and various types of biotechnology companies. Meanwhile, these users with high education have backgrounds in medicine. Technicians in those institutions must have at least two years of professional education and obtain qualification certificates before being engaged in related work. For the above features, Fisher Scientific Company has introduced individualized sales service. At the beginning, the users should select the relevant research areas in detail when they open personal accounts. The system also records the users’ purchase keywords and analyzes the data automatically. Through “data digging technology”, this system can determine the demands of potential users, and help reagents enterprises implement targeted marketing sales. Data digging technology can analyze relevant logging records effectively to discover how users open the web page. By analyzing the logging information, the customers’ satisfaction and expectations can be identified, which may develop the potential market and increase enterprises’ competitiveness. Therefore, Fisher Scientific Company can improve the sales efficiency greatly in “precise feature” through the use of data digging technology. This method is also good for the customers to know about products and promotional information. Lastly, this method meets users’ demands for information sensitivity and improving sales efficiency.

Canada’s e-commerce model began in the late 1990s. In the early days, the popularity of the network was not widespread, and biological reagents enterprises did not pay attention to the development of e-business models. They preferred the traditional business mode. However, sales reagents companies began to realize the potential of e-commerce in 2000 due to the gradual increase of e-commerce sales. Some sales agents realized the importance of their own network marketing and ran their own e-commerce. Fisher Scientific Company takes high market share by running its network marketing system through fierce competition, mergers and integration of the existing market. Finally, Fisher Scientific Company effectively allocated resources and reduced channel costs. Now, the company sells products of other companies including Qiagen, Promega, Invitrogen, Transgen, Rainin, Biohit, Sartorius, Nalgene, Bioind, Biolegend, CST, which almost covers more than 90% of biological reagents enterprises. Because Fisher Scientific Company has integrated a large number of biological reagents manufacturers, researchers can find almost everything they need in Fisher Scientific search engine. In addition, they can also compare the parameters and prices with other companies to determine the best products they want. The integrated platform not only helps customer save time, but also reduces logistics costs for enterprises.

According to a study of University of Tennessee, the third-party logistics companies can reduce costs 50% by compared with reagents companies’ logistics distribution system, improving 65% of services and reducing 55% of employees. Fisher Scientific Company uses modern e-commerce logistics system. It has established an information management system among different enterprises which includes resources planning, automatic warehouse systems, supply chain management and transportation management systems. This system integrated logistics, information and capital to ensure a seamless connection between enterprises and users. Fisher Scientific Company has established a high shared platform. When users reserve products, orders will be generated and sent to enterprises automatically. After receiving orders, enterprises deliver the products directly to users. All the information in the transaction process, including payment, delivery time, logistics companies’ name and estimated arrival time can be checked on the platform. With this high sharing e-commerce platform, customers can obtain products quickly, reducing intermediate links and time; it also completes the transfer of money immediately.

Fisher Scientific Company has developed its own measures to protect customers’ payment security by improving online payment function. Firstly, password must be used as its basic security measure on the account management. Secondly, customers can choose electronic signatures to pay the bills through individual account or corporate account because the Canadian Parliament officially recognized the legality of digital signatures and electronic documents. Thirdly, Fisher Scientific Company utilizes code system, which can ensure the security of customers’ transactions and protect their privacy as well. Multiple ways of payment and the secure system greatly enhance consumers’ confidence which makes electronic paying mode acceptable in Canada.

2 China’s biological reagents’ e-commerce marketing model is undeveloped

Compared with biological reagent industry in Canada, the services provided by the third-party electronic platform in China are insufficient. In traditional industries, the third-party electronic platform is still marginalized and its service model has some limitations.

Nowadays, the e-commerce development of biological reagents enterprises is lagging behind, and reasons are as follows: the marketing sales method is simple, and the enterprises merely utilize the website and e-mail[3]; compared with traditional marketing models, enterprises invest less in network marketing and sellers who are good at information technology and marketing skillsare insufficient[4]. Therefore, biological reagents enterprises should take network marketing as a useful complement and extension to their overall marketing strategies. The combination of the network marketing and the traditional marketing can constitute a marketing system. Biological reagents enterprises should improve the understanding of network marketing and get to know the importance of network marketing.

The integration of e-commerce sales model in China is low, and it can not form a large-scale benefit. At present, sales model of biological reagents enterprises is still the self-built electronic platform, but the sales and other aspects of these platforms are not comparable with the third-party e-commerce platform. This situation is in accordance with the development of e-commerce in China. The current biological reagents sales are based on the traditional marketing model, and e-commerce in the biological reagents sales field is still in the initial stage. So far we have not formed the large scale third-party e-commerce platform.

At present, China’s logistics system is seriously lagging behind, and the characteristics of e-commerce logistics companies can be summarized as “small scales, fewer market shares, less service function and weak competitiveness”. These problems seriously hinder the development of e-commerce logistics[5]. As biological agents and sales enterprises, they need to set up their own transportation sectors to meet the special requirements of biological products, but this approach not only increases the costs of the products, also restricts the sales area and affects the development of enterprises. Meanwhile, logistics infrastructure in China is lagging behind as well, and the poor logistics and inadequate legislation have seriously restricted the development of China’s e-commerce logistics system.

The e-commerce in China is still in the initial stage, and the legal norms of e-commerce which have not been fully established are not perfect. For example, there are no relevant laws of electronic signatures, electronic contracts and other electronic transactions in e-commerce. Therefore, China should draw lessons from the successful international experience to establish and improve relevant laws and regulations which can help regulate the network transaction to ensure the security of online transactions. Once the consumers and enterprises have confidence in e-commerce, it will develop soundly.

3 The enlightenment of fisher scientific company’s e-commerce marketing model

As it can be seen from the example of Fisher Scientific Company, a good biological reagents industry e-commerce model should be the integration of logistics, information and capital. Meanwhile, payment safety is fully guaranteed under the premise of the implementation of product circulation. In an era of information explosion, e-commerce is the general trend. As the three elements of the e-commerce, the integration of logistics, information and capital directly affects biological reagents business. At present, information is the most important one and it plays a pivotal role in the integration process and other aspect of trading activities, which guides the logistics and capital. The integration of the three elements requires multi-technical support such as the security of information transmission, reliability of the payment network and the correctness certification center.

Biological reagents enterprises in China should fully understand the role and prospects of e-commerce, and they must combine the internet marketing and traditional marketing to form a new marketing system. Biological reagents enterprises should realize the importance of the network marketing from a strategic perspective and gradually improve the business scale, industrial electronic sales platform, large-scale circulation and automated warehousing. By integrating information, logistics and capital, enterprises can reduce business costs and improve their market competitiveness.

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Author’s information: BAI Jian, Lecturer. Major research area: Social Pharmacy. Tel: 024-31207435, E-mail: baijian988@hotmail.com